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THE  EFFECTS  OF  EMANCIPATION  UPON  THE 
MENTAL  AND  PHYSICAL  HEALTH  OF  THE  NEGRO 
OF  THE  SOUTH 


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THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 

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NORTH  CAROLINA 


THE  COLLECTION  OF 
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THE     EFFECTS   OF    EMANCIPATION    UPON    THE 

MENTAL  AND  PHYSICAL  HEALTH  OF  THE 

NEGRO  OF  THE  SOUTH- 

By. J.   F.  "Miller,    M-'D.,   Superintendent  Eastern 
Hospital,  Goldsboro,  N.  C. 


[Reprinted  from  the  North  Carolina  Medical  Journal.] 


THE  EFFECTS  OF  EMANCIPATION  UPON  THE  MENTAL  AND 
PHYSICAL  HEALTHOF  THE  NEGRO  OF  THE  SOUTH* 

By  J.  F.  Miller,  M.D.,  Superintendent  Eastern  Hospital,  Goldsboro,  N.  C. 


From  the  Afro-American  Encyclopedia,  I  gather   the   following  statistics: 
"African  population  of  the  United  States,      -     -     -     7,470,040. 
Of  this  number,  there  are  pure  Africans,      -     -     -     6,337,980. 

Of  mulattoes  (one-half  pure) 956,989. 

Of  quadroons  (one-fourth  pure) 105,135. 

Of  octaroons  (one-eighth  pure) 69,936." 

In  round  numbers,  six  millions  live  in  the  South. 

I  observe  that  the  States  of  Louisiana,  Mississippi  and  South  Carolina  have 
more  negroes  than  whites. 

The  literature  of  insanity  and  physical  degeneration  among  this  popula- 
tion thus  far  is  comparatively  meagre ;  and  it  will  devolve  upon  us  of  the 
South  who  are  in  the  midst  of  these  people',  to  write  it. 

This  writer  has  been  thoroughly  reconstructed  and  readjusted  to  the 
changed  political  relations  of  the  negro.  He  has  no  controversy  with  man, 
nor  complaint  against  the  great  Disposer  of  human  events  for  the  results  of 
the  late  war  between  the  States.  Nor  has  he  any  prejudice  against  the  man- 
umitted slave  or  his  posterity.  In  common  with  the  great  mass  of  Southern 
people,  he  is  the  negroe's  friend. 

*Read  before  the  Southern  Medico-Psychological  Association,    at  Asheville,    N.  C,  Septem- 
ber 16,  1896. 


2  Miller — TV/.?  Effects  of  Emancipation  Upon  the  Menial  and  Physical,  etc. 

That  inimitable  American  wit  and  humorist,  Mark"Twain,  says  that  Adam 
is  a  very  much  neglected  man;  that  he  deserves  a  monument  and  that  he 
would  subscribe  liberally  for  the  purpose;  that  the  world  is  indebted  to  him 
more  than  to  any  other  man,  for  he  gave  us  both  hell  and  heaven. 

The  faithful  negroes  of  the  South  deserve  a  monument  also  for  their  loy- 
alty to  their  owners  and  fidelity  to  duty  under  the  most  trying  circumstances 
during  the  years  of  the  late  civil  war. 

But  relegating  to  the  domain  of  politics  and  sociology,  the  many  vexed 
questions  embraced  in  the  so-called  negro  problem,  the  alienist  and  the  stu- 
dent of  scientific  medicine  may  well  inquire:  What  has  been  the  effect  of 
freedom  upon  the  mental  and   physical  health  of  the  negroes  of  the  South? 

Has  it  been  damaging  or  otherwise? 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  paper  briefly  to  answer  this  question.  To  do  so, 
I  must  needs  state  some  facts  and  figures  heretofore  given  by  others  who 
have  written  on  this  subject. 

THE  HEALTH  OF  THE  NEGRO  PRIOR  TO  EMANCIPATION. 

From  close  personal  observation,  embracing  a  professional  life  of  nearly 
forty  years  among  the  negroes  and  from  data  obtained  from  professional 
brethren  in  different  sections  of  the  South,  I  have  no  hesitancy  in  declaring 
that  insanity  and  tuberculosis  were  rare  diseases  among  the  negroes  of  the 
South  prior  to  emancipation. 

Indeed,  many  intelligent  people  of  observation  and  full  acquaintance  of 
the  negro  have  stated  to  me  that  they  never  saw  a  crazy  or  consumptive  negro 
of  unmixed  blood  until  these  latter  years. 

The  fact  of  their  comparative  exemption  from  these  ailments  prior  to 
emancipation  is  so  well  established  that  I  deem  it  unnecessary  to  lengthen 
this  paper  by  additional  testimony  that  could  be  readily  furnished  from  phy- 
sicians of  large  practice  among  the  negroes  prior  to  emancipation. 

INSANITY   AND  TUBERCULOSIS  SINCE  KM ANCIP ATION. 

It  is  now -proper  to  inquire  what  is  and  has  been  the  history  of  the  negro 
as  to  these  ailments  since  emancipation. 

Abundant  testimony  from  practicing  physicians  throughout  the  South,  is 
not  wanting  to  establish  the  fact  that  negroes  no  longer  enjoy  immunity  from 
these  ailments. 

Let  us  look  at  the  testimony  of  our  hospitals  for  the  insane.  Until  the 
opening  of  the  Eastern  North  Carolina  hospital  for  the  accommodation  of 
the  colored  insane  of  the  State,  August  i,  1SS0,  the  State  of  North  Carolina 
had  but  one  hospital  for  the  care  and  treatment  of  all  her  insane  population. 

Accommodations  being  thus  limited,  it  is  fair  to  assume  that  many  of  the 
colored  insane  were  confined  in  jails  and  county  homes  or  cared  for  by  their 
friends.      Therefore  the  number  ot  patients  received  from  the  Raleigh  asylum 


Miller — The  Effects  of  Emancipation  Upon  the  Mental  and  Physical,  etc.  3 

into  the  Eastern  hospital  at  its  opening  does  not  fairly  represent  the  number 
of  insane  among  the  colored  population  of  the  State  at  that  time.  But  dur- 
ing the  year,  there  were  admitted  into  the  Eastern  hospital  from  the  Raleigh 
asylum  and  from  the  State  at  large  one  hundred  insane  negroes. 

This  embraces  the  accumulation  of  the  first  decade  and  a  half  after  the 
close  of  the  civil  war.  At  this  writing,  another  decade  and  ■;  half  later,  there 
are  under  treatment  in  the  Eastern  hospital  three  hundred  and  seventy-five 
negroes,  and  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  .here  are  quite  as  many  outside  as 
there  were  in  1880. 

In  a  paper  read  by  Dr.  T.  O.  Powell,  Superintendent  of  the  Georgia  Lun- 
atic asylum,  before  a  meeting  of  this  association  held  at  Atlanta,  I  gather 
the  following  facts: 

"The  census  of  i860  will  show  that  there  were  only  forty-four  insane 
negroes  in  the  State  of  Georgia,  or  one  insane  negro  in  every  10,584  of  pop- 
ulation, and  consumption  in  the  full  blooded  negro  was  rarely  seen. 

The  census  of  1870  shows  that  there  were  129  insane  negroes  in  the  State 
of  Georgia,  or  one  in  every  4,225. 

The  census  of  1880  gives  411  colored  insane  or  one  to  every  1,764  of  pop- 
ulation. 

The  census  of  1890  gives  910  colored  insane  or  one  to  every  943  of  popu- 
lation." 

According  to  the  figures  of  the  United  States  Census  Bureau^  the  number 
of  colored  insane  of  the  United  States  were,  in  1S50,  638,  giving  a  ratio  of 
175  per  million  inhabitants;  in  i860,  766,  giving  a  ratio  of  169  per  million 
inhabitants;  in  1870,  1,822,  giving  a  ratio  of  367  per  million  inhabitants;  in 
1880,  6, 157,  giving  a  ratio  of  91  2  per  million  inhabitants ;  in  1890,  6,  766,  giv- 
ing a  ratio  of  880  per  million  inhabitants. 

Commenting  upon  the  above  statistics,  Dr.  J.  W.  Babcock,  Superintendent 
South  Carolina  Insane  Asylum,  says:  "We  cannot  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that 
on  the  basis  of  the  census  as  compared  with  insanity  in  the  whites,  mental 
diseases  in  the  negro  has  arisen  from  one-fifth  as  common  in  1850  to  one-half 
as  common  in  1880  and  1890." 

These  statistics,  I  presume,  are  approximately  correct  and  c&n  be  substan- 
tiated by  the  testimony  of  the  superintendents  of  the  various  asylums  rep- 
resented in  this  association,  and  I  respectfully  submit  that  there  is  nothing 
necessary  in  the  way  of  additional  testimony  to  establish  the  fact  that  insan- 
ity among  the  negroes  of  the  South  has  wonderfully  increased  since  the  close 
of  the  late  war. 

I  have  no  reliable  statistics  at  hand  as  to  the  extent  of  tuberculosis  among 
the  negroes  since  the  war,  outside  of  insane  asylums ;  but  the  testimony  of 
hospitals  that  tuberculosis  among  the  negroes  has  increased  pari  passu  with 
insanity.  Indeed  the  one  is  often  the  accompaniment  of  the  other,  if  not  its 
legitimate  sequence. 


4         Miller —  The  Effects  of  Emancipation  Upon  the  Mental  and  Physical,  etc. 

Statistics  of  all  our  Southern  hospitals  for  the  insane  furnish  abundant 
testimony  that  consumption  in  its  various  forms  is  a  scourge  of  the  colored 
insane  as  well  as  of  the  white. 

The  statistics  of  the  Eastern  North  Carolina  Hospital  for  Colored  Insane, 
on  this  subject  are  as  follows  :  The  average  mortality  from  tuberculosis  since 
the  opening  in  August,  1880,  to  the  present  time,  September  1,  1896,  is  25 
per  cent,  of  the  whole  number  of  deaths. 

The  per  cent,  was  much  less  in  the  early  years  of  its  management.  While 
the  general  mortality  has  been  somewhat  reduced,  there  has  been  a  gradual 
increase  from  consumption.  Up  to  1884,  the  percentage  of  deaths  in  this 
hospital  from  tuberculosis  was  14  per  cent,  of  the  whole,  and  in  1895,  it  was 
27  per  cent. 

On  this  subject,  Dr.  Powell  says:  "From  observation  and  investigation, 
I  am  forced  to  believe  that  insanity  and  tuberculosis  are  first  cousins  or  at 
least  closely  allied.  The  sudden  outburst  of  insanity  with  the  colored  race 
of  the  South  came  associated  with  tuberculosis.  Hence  in  obtaining  histo- 
ries of  cases  as  they  are  brought  to  our  institutions,  the  hereditary  predispo- 
sition to  consumption  is  carefully  inquired  into. 

In  comparing  the  death  rate  in  the  Georgh  asylum  between  the  whites 
and  negroes,  although  the  care  and  treatment  are  the  same,  the  proportion 
of  deaths  from  this  disease  is  larger  in  the  colored  race,  and  I  lind  the  re- 
sults are  the  same  in  other  institutions  where  both  races  are  treated." 

Dr.  T.  J.  Mitchell,  Superintendent  Mississippi  State  Lunatic  Asylum,  says 
of  his  hospital  that  "for  the  fiscal  year  1S92,  there  were  forty-four  deaths, 
fourteen  having  died  of  consumption. 

Fiscal  year  of  1893,  twenty-nine  deaths,  sixteen  having  died  from  con- 
sumption. 

Fiscal  year  of  1894,  there  were  forty  deaths,  eighteen  having  died  from 
consumption. 

Fiscal  year  of  [895,  there  were  thirty-five  deaths,  eleven  having  died  from 
consumption. 

Ten  months  of  fiscal  year  of  1S96,  there  were  forty-eight  deaths,  twenty- 
three  having  died  of  consumption. 

These  figures  apply  to  the  colored  only,  among  whom  consumption  is 
much  more  prevalent  than  among  the  whites." 

From  the  above,  I  find  that  the  death  rate  in  the  hospital  at  Jackson,  Miss., 
for  the  past  five  )-ears,  from  consumption  is  a  fraction  over  42  per  cent,  ol 
the  whole  number  of  deaths. 

The  Central  hospital  at  Petersburg,  Va..  through  the  courtesy  of  Dr.  W; 
F.  Drewry,  furnishes  me  with  the  statistical  report  of  the  whole  number  o( 
deaths  from  all  causes,  and  also  the  number  of  deaths  from  consumption 
than  from  any  other  hospital  in  which  the  colored  insane  are  treated.  The 
percentage  of  this  hospital  is  a  fraction  over  12. 


Miller — The  Effects  £f  Emancipation  Upon  the  Mental  and  Physical,  etc.  5 

There  are  more  congenital  defects  among  the  negroes  as  demonstrated  by 
the  large  number  of  symmetrically  developed  crania. 

I  here  express  the  opinion  that  the  mental  inferiority  of  the  negro  as  thus 
shown  in  the  midst  of  the  environments  which  have  surrounded  him  since 
the  wai  is  a  leading  factor  in  the  development  of  his  insanity. 

The  untutored  savage  can  exist  and  be  healthy  in  mind  and  body  under 
conditions  that  will  seriously  affect  the  man  of  finer  sensibilities  from  culture 
and  education.  The  negro  in  slavery  had  "no  thought  for  the  morrow, 
wherewithal  he  should  be  fed  and  clothed,"  nor  did  the  claims  of  family 
press  upon  him  to  worry  and  affect  his  mind  ;  no  ambitious  hopes  stirred  his 
brain  as  to  the  possibilities  of  his  future;  but  "far  from  the  madding  crowd's 
ignoble  strife,"  he  spent  his  quiet,  humble  life  in  his  little  log  cabin,  with  his 
master  to  care  for  every  want  of  self  and  family,  in    sickness   and    in  health. 

It  is  an  undisputed  fact,  known  to  our  Southern  people  that  no  race  of 
men  ever  lived  under  better  hygienic  restraints  or  had  governing  their  lives 
rules  and  regulations  more  conducive  to  physical  health  and  mental  repose. 
Their  habits  of  life  were  regular,  their  food  and  clothing  were  substantial 
and  sufficient,  as  a  rule,  and  the  edict  of  the  master  kept  indoors  at  night 
and  restrained  them  from  promiscuous  sexual  indulgence  and  the  baneful 
influences  of  the  liquor  saloon.  In  sickness,  he  was  promptly  and  properly 
cared  for  Ijy  physician  and  nurse.  Freedom  came  to  him  and  a  change  came 
over  his  entire  life. 

Having  shown  that  under  his  former  manner  of  life  the  negro  enjoyed  a 
wonderful  immunity  from  brain  and  lung  trouble, (I  confidently  assert  that 
the  germs  of  these  troubles  came  to  the  same  man  and  race  in  consequence 
of  his  changed  environments  and  the  manner  of  his  life  which  followed.} 

In  his  ignorance  of  the  laws  of  his  being,  the  functions  of  citizenship  and 
the  responsibilities  and  duties  which  freedom  imposed,  demands  were  made 
upon  the  negro  which  his  intellectual  parts  were  unable  to  discharge.  In 
his  former  condition  none  of  these  things  disturbed  his  mind.  Immediately 
the  restraining  influences  which  had  been  such  conservators  of  healthfulness 
of  mind  and  body  were  removed,  thousands  left  the  quiet  homes  and  regu- 
lar life  of  the  country  for  crowded  and  badly  ventilated  houses  of  the  towns. 
These  were  often  located  in  the  midst  of  unhealthy  surroundings,  their  oc- 
cupants without  regular  employment  ekeing  out  a  precarious  existence,  ut- 
terly unmindful  of  the  laws  of  health. 

It  is  a  matter  of  surprise  that  the  sudden  and  wonderful  revolution  in  the 
social  and  political  condition  of  the  negro  should  have  turned  the  heads  of 
many  and  in  their  roseate  dreams  of  the  future,  bade  them  hope  for  even 
better  things  than   "forty  acies  and  a  mule." 

Man  is  an  organized  being  and  is  subject  to  certain  laws  which  he  cannot 
violate  with  impunity.      These  laws  affect  him  in  the  air  he  breathes,  the  food 


6  Miller — The  Effects  of  Emancipation  Upon  the  Mental  and  Physical,  etc. 

he  eats,  the  clothes  he  wears  and  every  circumstance  surrounding  his  habita 
tion. 

In  the  wholesale  violation  of  these  laws  after  the  war,  as  previously  stated, 
was  laid  the  foundation  of  the  degeneration  of  the  physical  and  mental  con- 
stitution of  the  negro.  Licentiousness  left  its  slimy  trail  of  sometimes  in- 
eradicable disease  upon  his  physical  being,  and  neglected  bronchitis,  pneu- 
monia and  pleurisy  lent  their  helping  hand  toward  lung  degeneration. 

It  is  true  there  was  comparatively  little  insanity  among  the  negroes  during 
the  first  decade  after  the  war,  but  the  seeds  of  disease  were  being  sown  which 
in  succeeding  years  have  brought  a  beautiful  harvest  of  mental  and  physical 
degeneration  and  he  is  now  becoming  a  martyr  to  an  heredity  thus  estab- 
lished. 

During  the  flush  times  immediately  after  the  war,  while  cotton  and  all 
farm  products  and  farm  labor  commanded  the  highest  prices  known  to  this 
country,  the  negroes  of  the  South  who  remained  on  the  farms  in  their  ac- 
customed pursuits  were  comfortable  and  many  of  them  accumulated  some 
property;  and  during  this  period  there  was  comparatively  little  insanity 
among  them.  This  writer  had  a  large  clientele  during  this  period  among 
this  class  of  negroes  and  he  had  no  better  paying  patrons  according  to  their 
ability.  But  as  farm  products  lowered  in  price  and  labor  became  cheaper 
and  the  general  hardness  of  the  times  increased,  their  ability  to  pay  dimin- 
ished and  many  of  them  began  to  suffer  not  only  for  the  comforts,  but  for 
the  means  of  healthful  existance. 

I  am  informed  by  physicians  practicing  among  the  same  people  that  only 
a  few  negroes  are  now  able  to  pay  for  professional  services. 

The  mental  worry  for  simple  existence  has  increased  with  the  tightness  of 
the  money  market,  the  depreciation  of  farm  products  and  the  price  of  labor. 
We  all  know  that  worry  and  trouble  coupled  with  failing  physical  health  are 
potential  factors  in  causing  insanity.  I  do  not  believe  the  negro  is  an  excep- 
tion to  the  rule,  though  he  may  not  be  affected  by  such  causes  to  the  same 
degree  as  the  Caucassian.  But  he  is  the  mudsill  of  social  life  of  the  South 
and  in  times  like  the  present  this  class  of  people  must  necessarily  suffer  most. 
I  am  fully  aware  that  the  negro  is  proverbially  improvident  and  that  even 
now,  after  thirty  years  or  more  of  freedom,  he  takes  but  little  thought  for 
to-morrow,  but  to-morrow,  nevertheless,  comes  to  him  and  oftimes  finds  him 
wholly  unprepared  to  meet  its  exacting  demands  for  support  of  self  and 
family.  While  it  may  be  assumed  as  a  fact  that  the  negro  can  exist  and  be 
comfortable  under  less  favorable  circumstances  than  the  white  man,  having 
a  nervous  organization  less  sensitive  to  his  environments,  yet  it  is  true  that 
he  has  less  mental  equipoise,  and  may  suffer  mental  alienation  from  influ- 
ences and  agencies  which  would  not  affect  a  race  mentally  stronger. 

From  a   brochure   on   Tuberculosis   among   the    Insane,    by    by   Dr.  E.  D. 


Miller — The  Effects  of  Emancipation  Upon  the  Mental  and  Physical,  etc.  7 

Bondurant,  assistant  superintendent  Alabama   Insane  Hospital,  I  gather  the 
following : 

"During  three  years  and  nine  months,  beginning  October  1,  1S90,  295 
deaths  occurred  among  the  1,700  patients  treated  at  the  Alabama  Insane 
Hospital. 

Of  the  179  deaths  among  white  patients,  51,  or  28  per  cent.,  were  due 
to  tuberculosis;  of  116  deaths  among  negro  patients,  49,  or  42  percent.,  were 
due  to  tuberculosis. 

In  addition  to  this,  a  study  of  our  clinical  records  discovers  the  fact  that 
in  the  colored  race  the  disease  assumes  a  much  more  active  and  rapidly  pro- 
gressive form,  the  average  duration  of  fatal  cases  being  markedly  shorter  in 
the  negro." 

In  the  report  of  the  South  Carolina  Hospital   for  the   Insane   for  the  year 
1895-4,    Dr.    J.    W.    Babcock   says:      "From    1888   to    1893    the  deaths  from 
tuberculosis  were  distributed  as  indicated  by  the  following  table: 
White — males  38,  females  52;  total  90. 
Colored — males  43,  females  165;  total  208. 

The  colored  women  who  died  from  the  disease  outnumbered  the  other  three 
classes  by  32.  This  too  when  the  smallest  part  of  our  population  consists  of 
colored  women.  In  his  report  for  1894-5,  Dr.  Babcock  states:  During  the 
year  the  large  number  of  fifty-nine  patients  died  of  some  form  of  tubercu- 
losis. Of  these  fifteen,  two  men  and  thirteen  women,  were  whites;  while 
forty-four  were  colored,  eighteen  men  and  sixteen  women." 

Abundant  data  similar  to  the  above  doubtless  could  be  obtained  from  other 
hospitals;  but  the  above  I  respectfully  submit  is  amply  sufficient  for  the  pur- 
poses in  view. 

ETIOLOGY. 

Having  thus  shown  by  testimony,  ample  and  conclusive,  that  insanity  and 
tuberculosis  were  almost  unknown  diseases  of  m  groes  prior  to  1865  and 
having  also  shown  by  the  same  testimony  that  they  are  common  among  the 
negroes  of  to-day,  the  question  of  greatest  interest  to  the  alienist  and  phy- 
sician is:     What  is  the  relation  of  freedom  to  these  diseases? 

We  sometimes  see  the  last  straw  that  breakes  the  back  of  the  camel,  but 
fail  to  discover  the  many  others  previously  imposed  upon  the  burdened 
beast.  Every  asylum  superintendent  knows  how  misleading  are  the  causes 
of  insanity  as  stated  in  the  papers  of  application.  In  papers  committing 
negroes  to  the  Eastern  Hospital,  religion  and  religious  excitement  are  fre- 
quently set  forth  as  assignable  causes  of  the  insanity  of  the  applicant.  While 
this  is  sometimes  true,  it  is  often  untrue.  The  error  is  a  natural  one,  owing 
to  the  fact  that  his  disease  is  manifested  through  his  highly  emotional,  relig^ 
ious  nature. 


8  Miller — The  Effects  of  Emancipation  Upon  the  Mental  and  Physical,  etc. 

To  arrive  at  a  correct  conclusion  as  to  the  effects  of 'the  changed  political 
and  social  relations  on  the  mental  and  physical  constitution  of  the  negro,  it 
is  necessary  to  know  his  manner  of  life  during  the  ante-bellum  and  post- 
bellum  periods  of  his  history. 

To  understand  and  properly  judge  any  man  or  race  of  men,  it  is  necessary 
to  know  his  heredity,  the  environments  of  his  life  and  many  other  circum- 
stances that  are  factors  in  the  formation  of  his  mental,  physical  and  moral 
constitution. 

A  native  of  Africa  and  a  savage  a  few  generations  ago,  then  a  slave  for 
several  generations  afterwards;  this  is  the  man  and  the  race  upon  whom  the 
high  responsibilities  of  freedom  were  thrust;  a  nation  literally  born  in  a  day. 

The  history  of  the  world,  so  far  as  I  know,  furnishes  no  condition  similar 
to  that  in  which  the  negroes  of  the  South  were  placed  the  first  few  years 
after  the  close  of  the  war.  Without  education  of  self  or  ancestry- and  with- 
out preparation  of  any  sort,  the  new  negro  was  invested  with  the  highest 
functions  of  citizenship  before  the  healing  of  the  marks  of  the  chains  that 
had  bound  him. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  or  desire  to  be  offensive  to  our  Afro-American  citi- 
zens, or  to  make  them  odious  by  comparison  with  the  Caucasian;  but  the 
question  of  mental  capacity  is  germane  to  the  question  under  consideration. 

I  am  fully  aware  that  among  the  Afro-Americans  of  the  South  may  be 
found  some  orators,  eloquent  in  speech;  some  who  have  attained  to  ripe 
scholarship,  and  many  others  who  have  demonstrated  considerable  capacity 
in  the  learned  professions  and  in  business  circles;  but  as  a  rule  such  are  of 
mixed  blood. 

Remaining  in  contact  with  the  superior  Caucasian  race,  with  the  uplifting 
influences  of  its  high  civilization,  it  is  confidently  believed  the  Afro-Ameri- 
can will  yet  reach  higher  mental  developments.  But  as  a  class,  their  mental 
calibre  is  small;  the  convolutions  of  their  brain  are  few  and  superficial ;  their 
cranial  measurement  small  and  other  anatomical  facts  demonstrate  his  infe- 
riority. 

The  color  of  his  skin  is  a  mark  of  inferiority,  and  not  the  result  of  cli- 
matic influence,  as  has  been  declared  by  some. 

We  are  informed  that  four  thousand  or  more  years  ago,  the  Caucasian  was 
white,  the  Mongolian,  yellow  and  the  negro,  black.  The  Aryan-Hindoos  of 
pure  blood  have  preserved  their  fair  complexion  in  a  hot  and  moist  climate 
for  some  three  thousand  years,  and  the  color  of  the  Egyptain  has  not  changed 
for  more  than  forty  centuries.  We  certainly  know  that  for  three  hundred 
years  the  negro  of  unmixed  blood  in  the  temperate  climate  of  the  United 
States  is  now  near  the  color  of  his  African  progenitors. 

It  is  a  anatomical  fact  that  the  average  weight  of  the  negroe's  brain  is 
forty-two  ounces,  while  forty-nine  ounces  is  the  recognized  average  of  the 
Caucasian, 


Mitier—  The  Effects  of  Emancipation  Upon  the  Mental  and  Physical,  etc.         g 

§ 

WHY  MORE  INSANITY  AMONG   FEMALES  THAN  AMONG  THE  MALES. 

In  all  ages  and  among  all  peoples  of  an  inferior  race,  females  suffer  most 
from  the  worry,  labor  and  privations  incident  to  their  pecuniary  and  social 
condition.  I  believe  this  statement  is  emphasized  and  illustrated  by  the  large 
increase  of  female  patients  over  males  in  the  Eastern  North  Carolina  Hos- 
pital. Applications  for  the  admission  of  females  for  the  past  ten  years  have 
been  about  40  per  cent,  greater  tha^ri  those  for  the  males. 

In  my  report  to  the  Board  of  Directors  for  the  year  1888,  I  made  the  fol- 
lowing statement :  It  is  an  inceresting  question  in  psychological  medicine 
why  this  disproportion  of  insanity  in  sex£s  among  the  colored  people.  It 
may  be  said  in  general  terms  that  women  have  a  more  highly  wrought  nerv- 
ous organization  than  men;  their  emotions  are  more  easily  aroused;  their 
sympathies  are  more  tender;  their  love  is  stronger;  and  while  they  have  more 
fortitude  under  physical  suffering,  their  spiritual  nature  suffers  more  than 
man's  under  a  sense  of  abandonment  by  those  to  whom  they  naturally  and 
of  right  look  for  reciprocal  affection,  protection  and  support.  It  is  a  melan- 
choly fact  that  among  many  of  the  colored  people  the  sanctity  of  the  marital 
relation  is  lightly  esteemed  and  its  solemn  obligations  but  indifferently  re 
garded.  How  often  do  husbands  when  the  cares  of  an  increasing  family  be- 
gin to  press  with  weight  upon  them,  abandon  their  wives  and  children  under 
the  pretext  of  going  South  to  work  irPturpentine  fields,  leaving  their  wives 
to  struggle  alone  for  self  and  children  until  excessive  labors,  an  aching  heart 
and  utter  destitution  drive  her  with  a  crazed  brain  within  these  walls. 
Cruelty  of  husbands  thus  manifested  and  manifested  in  many  other  ways 
largely  accounts  for  this  disproportion. 

In  the  light  of  succeeding  years,  I  have  no  reason  to  change  the  opinion 
then  expressed. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  enter  into  the  treatment  of  insanity  of  the  Afro- 
American.  Insanity  in  the  negro  and  its  treatment  are  practically  the  same 
as  in  the  Caucasian.  The  habits,  education  and  emotions  of  the  negro  in 
his  same  condition  differ  as  a  class  from  the  Caucasian. 

The  negro  laughs  louder,  sings  louder,  prays  and  preaches  louder,  than 
the  Caucasian;  and  is  more  vulgar  in  speech  and  less  cleanly  in  his  person. 
He  carries  these  characteristics  into  his  insane  condition  and  is  therefore 
more  noisy,  more  vulgar  and  beastly  in  his  habits. 

Mania  is  the  prevailing  form  of  mental  derangement  and  suicides  are  rare. 
I  have  seen  but  one  well  defined  case  of  suicidal  melancholia  in  the  Eastern 
North  Carolina  Hospital  for  nine  years. 

Dr.  Berkley,  of  Baltimore,  who  has  written  on  Paresis  in  the  Negro,  thinks 
paresis  as  common  to  the  negio  as  to  the  white  man,  conditions  of  life  being 
the  same.      Paresis  being  a  metropolitan  disease,  this  statement  is  probably 


io     Miller — The  Effects  of  Emancipation  Upon  the  Mental  and  Physical 'f-etc. 


correct  as  to  the  colored  insane  of  our  large  cities,  but  in  the  rural  districts 
and  in  our  small  towns  of  the  South  according  to  my  experience,  paresis  is 
a  rare  disease. 

There  are  some  difficulties  attending  the  custodial  care  and  treatment  of 
the  colored  insane  probably  not  fully  appreciated  by  those  whose  population 
is  exclusively  of  the  whites. 

The  want  of  previous  education  in  the  past  of  a  iarge  majority  of  the  col- 
ored insane  restricts  us  in  the  means  of  Diversion.  There  are  but  few  arti- 
sans among  them  and  the  chief  employment  must  needs  be  that  of  the  com- 
mon laborer  of  the  field,  while  a  large  number  unable  to  engage  in  the  ordin- 
ary work  of  the  hospital  are  left  without  resources  of  relief  from  the  tedium 
and  monotony  of  hospital  life.  Every  asylum  officer  appreciates  the  value 
of  moral  treatment  for  the  insane,  consisting  of  an  intelligent  apprehension 
of  their  wants,  whims  and  caprices,  a  kindly  sympathy  for  the  afflicted  and 
the  thousand  and  one  attentions  necessary  for  the  best  results.  This  re- 
quires intelligence,  conscientiousness  and  tact,  not  often  found  in  the  colored 
attendant. 

It  is  a  notorious  fact  that  but  few  colored  attendants  have  the  necessary 
influence  over  the  colored  insane  that  is  so  desirable  in  their  care  and  treat- 
ment. The  negro  is  usually  indignant  and  rebels  against  the  restraints  ex- 
ercised by  another  negro,  and  consequently  force  if  often  necessary  when 
moral  suasion  and  a  stronger  personal  influence  would  have  accomplished 
better  results  in  management. 

In  the  light  of  the  teachings  of  the  last  two  decades,  showing  a  marvelous 
increase  of  insanity  among  che  Afro- Americans,  and  tyrannized,  as  I  fear 
they  henceforth  will  be  by  an  heredity  from  which  they  cannot  escape,  I  con- 
fidently believe  that  in  the  near  future  the  proportion  of  insanity  among  the 
negroes  in  the  South  will  be  as  great,  if  not  greater,  than  among  the  whites. 

Their  care  and  treatment  is  one  of  the  great  and  pressing  duties  of  humane 
and  Christian  statesmanship  which  the  South  doubtless  will  discharge  in 
obedience  to  the  injunction:  "Ye  that  are  strong  ought  to  bear  the  infirmi- 
ties of  the  weak." 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


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FOR  USE  ONLY  IN 
THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  COLLECTION 


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